For the most part, the brothers answered no to the first question and yes to the second, because the bike, a $100 Hyper Spinner Pro, rode like a dream.

“If I had let them ride,” Shontrell said later, “they would keep asking.”

Last Friday, Javion gave Shontrell the OK to take it for a ride by himself.

Shontrell tooled over toward the E buildings on the project’s south side, beneath the oaks along West Grenada Terrace.

There’s a dirty word spray-painted on the sidewalk in black. The bigger boys sometimes hang out.

* * *

One of the bigger boys, a kid 16 or 17, saw Shontrell on the new bike.

The teenager asked if he could go for a ride. The older boy wanted to do what he called “some catwalks.”

Shontrell knew the teen’s name, but didn’t know where he lived. Shontrell told him he couldn’t ride. Then Shontrell went to leave.

A Bibb County sheriff’s report describes what happened next. The teen asked again if he could go for a spin: “Shontrell said he again told (the teen) no. He said (the teen) approached him and pushed him off the bike.”

The teen hopped on and disappeared down the street.

He didn’t come back.

When Javion found out his bike was gone, he wondered if he could call his daddy for a new one.

* * *

Chances are if you’ve owned bicycles long enough, you’ve had one stolen. Most likely when you were a kid, back when your bike was your wheels, your ticket to the neighborhood and beyond.